


Adored, Adrift, Absolved

by clarityhiding



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alpha Tim Drake, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Industrial Revolution, Alternate Universe - Romance Novel, Happy Ending, M/M, Marriage, Mpreg, Not!Fic, Omega Jason Todd, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarityhiding/pseuds/clarityhiding
Summary: Jason is basically a romance novel heroine right up until he loses the love of his life. Then he has to get down to business and do something with himself. That's okay. There are still plenty of social inequalities to tackle.
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Comments: 6
Kudos: 95





	Adored, Adrift, Absolved

**Author's Note:**

> Another not!fic written as a campfire on [Capes & Coffee](https://discord.gg/7fYhMBv) the Tim Drake Discord server and vaguely based on a dream I had.

Here is poor but honest omega Jason working in an industrial-age factory, just trying to make a living. Mostly a good, dependable worker, though in his spare time he's trying to unionize the workers—mainly omegas and/or beta women—in hopes of getting better working conditions, higher wages, etc. As their spokesperson, he's sent to talk to The Boss. Cleans up, tries to look as respectable as possible, goes into The Boss's office and lays out what the workers want.

The Boss, a young alpha who inherited control of the company some years back, listens thoughtfully and begins asking all kinds of questions—turns out the poor labor practices were put in place by his now-deceased father and he wasn't aware that things were so bad (he's let the factory continue running as it's always done because it didn't even occur to him that things might be this way). 

Their talk ends up going late, Jason following him around the factory as he locks up for the night, and even on out onto the street. He never thought it'd go this long, but Mr. Drake keeps asking more questions and somehow their conversation (because that's what it is now, it's no longer just Jason laying out demands or suggesting solutions) has transitioned to talking about how omegas (and beta women) are treated unfairly by society and have little to no power. Mr. Drake tells him he must go now… but maybe Jason would be willing to continue their conversation elsewhere? Perhaps over dinner?

The next thing Jason knows, he's being courted by his boss??? Who is cleaning up the factory, introducing safety measures, increasing wages, firing the alpha foremen who constantly abused their privilege and replacing them with new forepeople from the factory floor as suggested by Jason over the course of an endless stream of dinners and Sunday strolls.

It's. Rather disconcerting? Jason initially thought this might all be some scheme to get into his pants (which is weird enough—he knows he's nowhere near the picture of a classic omega beauty) and everything might be reversed the moment he showed any weakness but Mr. Drake is respectful? Kind? Compassionate?? Though there's a strange sadness that lingers in him always, and, over time, Jason finds himself yearning to do something to lift that sadness.

Eventually, they marry! Jason is swept away to Drake estate in a flurry of orange blossoms and organza (his gown is gorgeous—Jason feels ridiculous, wearing such delicate frippery when he's a huge, hulking omega, but Mr. Drake [Tim, he's to call him Tim, now] keeps reaffirming how beautiful he is and it's hard to notice the quiet comments when those blue eyes watch him so intently), and they spend a rather lovely week or three together, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Is time made even more lovely by the fact that the generosity and display of Able Provider by his new husband sparks Jason's heat a little early resulting in an extended and _very_ passionate honeymoon? Perhaps! 😏

(Pause to appreciate the mental image of 5'9" Tim carrying his 6'+ bride over the threshold and all the way to the bedroom and just manhandling him like nobody's business because oh my Mr. Drake what large muscles you have! All the better to hold you up against the wall while I shower you with love and devotion, my dear. Etcetera.)

And then he's gone.

Here's Jason, wooed, married, seduced, most probably (definitely) knocked up… and his husband vanishes. He's left in this echoing house with the staff and a vague letter about a business trip and what. What. He expected more from the man who showed so much care, attention, respect, ~~love~~. Jason… isn't sure about the last of those because when ~~Mr. Drake~~ Tim proposed, he did confess that there was a stipulation in his father's will that he marry and produce a blood heir by a certain age. But if that was all this was, why put in so much effort? Why choose Jason, when such an eligible young bachelor could have his pick of any number of flighty society omegas raised from childhood with the expectation of marrying for position and not for love? Why take the time to institute so many reforms at the factory, reforms that initially lost him money (though now there's been an uptick in success as happy, healthy workers are better workers and produce better quality goods, leading DI products to outsell those of competitors)? ~~Why show Jason such tenderness and affection during his first heat as a married man, proclaiming his beauty and splendor over and over, taking him to heights he never before thought possible?~~

He's… flummoxed? Flummoxed is really the only word that seems to fully encompass his feelings about the situation ~~better than betrayed, abandoned, unloved, unworthy, inconsequential, inadequate~~ — Jason isn't quite sure what to do with himself, but he did agree to this life when he made his vows, and perhaps there was an emergency with DI? Yes, that must be it. Tim is sure to return and explain himself as soon as the situation is set to rights. Of course he will. In the meantime, Jason will make friends with the house staff now that there's nothing (no one) to distract him. He can question them, make sure they're being treated right (he hasn't forgotten the unfortunate conditions his late father-in-law left his other workers in, after all), befriend them. This is fine.

Then, the letter comes. And with it, a lawyer.

The lawyer is kind. Sympathetic. Insists that they meet in the parlor, that Jason take a seat first, due to his delicate condition. (It's been nearly 4 months since his marriage and, on the advisement of the housekeeper and the maids, he's been to town to see about ordering some new clothes that better fit his changing figure—but that was only just the other day, and the new pieces aren't ready yet, so it's quite clear from certain angles that Jason is in the family way.)

It would seem that the merchant vessel _The Crimson Falcon_ has been lost at sea. Some of those aboard survived and made it back to report the tale, but its owner was not in their number. The lawyer (Babs? let's make it Babs, we haven't got any other Bats here yet so we may as well) regrets to inform Mr. Drake that he is a widow. Also, as the dam of the sole remaining (and currently unborn) Drake, the inheritor of the entire Drake estate until such time as Jason's child comes of age. She hands him a sealed envelope and asks that he come to her office in the city at his earliest convenience in order to review the paperwork, sign the appropriate documents, etc. Ms. Gordon would have brought such things with her, but Mr. Timothy Drake's will stipulates that it must be done in the city—she can't imagine why, though perhaps he felt it important that whoever took over also take special care to mind the factory, rather than run it remotely and with minimal input as his father did before him?

"It's a tragic situation, and you will have your fair share of difficulties, being an omega of property and position in a society when the only way one of your sex can achieve such a place is through tragedy and loss."

Jason would verbally attack her for that comment—he's well aware of the inequality between the sexes and the unfairness of it all, he doesn't need his nose rubbed in it—but it's clear from the downward curl of her lips and the wrinkle of her nose that this lawyer shares his views on the subject.

She bids him adieu and leaves him there, in a too-big house with a ~~broken heart~~ letter that will, perhaps, at least give some explanation to soothe the horrible, consuming ache in his chest, rising to choke and smother him with the impossibility of this all.

When he opens the envelope, he finds that all it contains is a single word written in the center of the sheet. _'Sorry.'_

And then, like. Figure several years pass? Baby is born, light of Jason's life, he takes great pleasure in raising his child to respect people no matter their sex or gender, spearheading all kinds of pro-omega/beta legislature, working with Barbara to reform the system, etc., etc.

Probably works to remake DI into a worker-owned company (or as close to that as he can manage, within the confines of the current legal system). Meets other powerful people in the city with similar agendas to his own (Bruce, Kate, Lucius, Leslie, etc.). But there is always a sadness about him. An air of regret.

He wonders, sometimes. Whether this was Tim's plan all along—to find some worthy omega to wed and widow, someone who might continue the reforms he started before they even began courting (and he knows that now, having looked back at the records and ledgers; knows that Tim was already restructuring DI before Jason ever met him, just focused more on the shipping side than the production side). Tim always looked sad when he thought no one was watching. Pensive. Morose.

Jason has spoken to the survivors of _The Crimson Falcon_ , tracked down every last one and grilled them on the tragedy of its sinking. They are all cagey with their stories, like they are holding something back, something important. Perhaps something about how the ship came to sink in the first place, or the mission of its owner, or both.

(Jason does not want to believe that Tim would sink an entire vessel and doom all those on it along with himself to escape the melancholia that plagued him. But there is much about his husband he did not know, things he'd hoped to learn during a lifetime together, a lifetime stolen from him by tragedy.)

Jason talks to Tim's associates (his associates now) and it feels like each and every one of those conversations start the same way. Hesitant, regretful look. "I'm not one to speak ill of the dead, but…" All of them paint the same picture, of a young man born and raised in privilege, but somehow never finding joy in it, in much of anything. Pensive, thoughtful, careful, constrained—these are all words they use to describe him.

And then they rush to assure Jason that there was a definite change to him in those last few months, a lightening of his mood, an eagerness to his step, a hint of laughter in his voice as he spoke of his beaux and later fiancé. ( _Only a hint of laughter?_ Jason wonders. There was always laughter in Tim's voice when he spoke with him. Except for during those serious moments that could not be joked about, there was always some hidden joke, some spirit of mirth that drew Jason in, enchanting and entrancing him.)

And then a confrontation! With Jason's not-so-dead husband! (Seriously, I have no idea how he learns Tim isn't dead—did he see him from a distance? Perhaps Tim was a creeper and lurking in the woods surrounding the Drake estate in hopes of catching a glimpse of his baby, now a child of 5, and greatly underestimated the eagle eye of his "widow"?)

Blah blah blah, Jason angrily confronts him! How dare he abandon them, abandon _him_? Run off and let Jason think him dead for so long?! Tim mumbles something about how Jason seems to have done fine on his own with both DI and their—Jason's—child (Tim readily acknowledges he has no claim to the child, that simply being their sire is not enough no matter what the law may say on the subject). "You're only not his father because you weren't _here_ ," Jason angrily informs him.

Tim tries to brush it off, to insist that the marriage was simply one of convenience done to follow the stipulations of his own father's will regarding marriage and heir. He did Jason a favor, disappearing and "dying" as he did to allow him access all the rights and privileges that the law would otherwise deny him simply based on his sex.

"If it was all just a contractual convenience to you, why bother courting me, wooing me? Why not present it as such from the start?" Jason demands. "If you simply desired to make my life easier, why bother making me fall in love with you at all?"

"I did it _for_ you! To spare you pain and hurt and horribleness! Because I—" Tim's mouth snaps shut and he refuses to meet Jason's gaze, swallowing and suddenly nervous. When he continues, there is a shift in his demeanor, a return to the formality that he showed when Jason first confronted him (both now and way back when, before their courtship, when he was The Boss and Jason simply one worker among many). "I am not a good person. My family is not a good family. The things my father and others before him did—" He shakes his head. "It is like a plague upon our bloodline, the singular ability to hurt and harm the ones we should love and care for most. Better to leave you alone and with all the comforts of the world than to remain and one day see myself turn into my father and grandfather, and you into my mother, my grandmother—endlessly sad and powerless to change your situation."

(Spoiler alert: _The Crimson Falcon_ never sank, simply went through a paint job and name change. Cagey sailors were cagey because they were paid off to report it went down and there were no other survivors. Tim has been off gallivanting about [possibly engaging in a spot of Robin Hood-like piracy??], avoiding Gotham or only ever returning in disguise. His absence was a very deliberate choice on his part, as was his leaving immediately after the wedding and sharing of Jason's heat, probably [definitely] knocking him up.)

"By leaving, you made me sadder than I would have ever been had you stayed," Jason tells him, framing Tim's face in his hands and turning it so he cannot look away. "You will never be your forbearers, because you simply can't be. You are kind and considerate, respectful and righteous. You are so many good, decent things, with a heart so big you would love the world, if only it allowed you to."

"If I am, it is only because the love of a good man has made me so," Tim demurs, eyes slanting to the side even as his cheeks heat.

"You never needed me to make you something you already are."

And then there's kisses and reconciliation and _so much_ therapy and raunchy sex and they live happily ever after, raising babies and overthrowing social structures.

THE END.

**Author's Note:**

> [I have a tumblr!](http://themandylion.tumblr.com/) Come visit if you want ridiculous AU headcanons, rants about the English language (and/or publishing), Black Death fangirling, adorable baby bats, and veeeeery occasional fanart.


End file.
